ozipital has added a photo to the pool:

Three images of the great "red rock" from my recent and first visit. It has been a long wait, but in my experience, iconic landmarks rarely disappoint and certainly I was entranced as were the hundreds of other visitors....

Chris Agar has added a photo to the pool:

By the banks of the Yarra River. Warrandyte - just outside of Melbourne, Victoria.

Michael J Fuery has added a photo to the pool:

A blue-lit Story Bridge for the blue hour

Nominees to face off in November in redistricted seat central to Trump’s bid to retain slim Republican majority

Tennessee primary voters picked a pair of Memphis-area lawmakers to square off in a dramatically reconfigured US House seat central to Donald Trump’s plan to try to hold on to a slim Republican majority in the midterm congressional elections.

Republicans chose state senator Brent Taylor, who was endorsed by Trump, to be their nominee in the revamped 9th congressional district. Democrats picked state representative Justin Pearson, who gained national prominence three years ago when he was expelled from the Tennessee House for protesting in support of gun control measures.

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Latest attacks by Iran-aligned Houthis spark concerns that Middle East crisis is intensifying

• Who are the Houthis – explained in 30 seconds

Attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthis on a military camp in Yemen and in Saudi Arabia have sparked concerns that the Middle East crisis will continue to spiral.

Yemen is being increasingly drawn into the US-Israeli war with Iran, with the Houthi rebels stepping up attacks against both government forces inside the country and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, a key US ally and supporter of the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

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‘Concrete results’ needed by end of the year in developing alternative to Patriot, says Ukrainian president. What we know on day 1,626

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Forty years ago there were more than 22 sheep to every New Zealander, but wool prices and production declined with the uptake of synthetic alternatives

John Hargreaves’ family has farmed sheep and beef in Kaiwaka, north of Auckland, for generations. In the 1960s they had 3,000 ewes but in the decades since, as the value of wool declined and shearing costs grew, his flock slowly decreased to just over 1,700.

But now, for the first time in roughly six years, his wool is making money.

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A new name has been added to the list of future tropical cyclones for the Asia-Pacific region, including one with a culinary twist

A “Typhoon Dim-sum” could one day be on the horizon after the name was added to the Asia-Pacific region’s official list of tropical cyclone names this week.

It features among nine names to be added to the list of future tropical cyclones, with each name contributed by a country. The names of tropical storms are generally recycled, replacing those which have caused serious casualties and economic loss.

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WASHINGTON (ANP) - De Russische president Vladimir Poetin zou de komende jaren met een beperkte aanval op een NAVO-land kunnen proberen de vastberadenheid van het militaire bondgenootschap te testen. Dat staat in nieuwe rapporten van Amerikaanse inlichtingendiensten, meldt The Wall Street Journal.

De mogelijke scenario's lopen uiteen van een cyberaanval tot een kleinschalige inval over land. Onduidelijk is hoe waarschijnlijk de Amerikaanse diensten zo'n aanval achten.

De waarschuwing komt op een moment dat de Verenigde Staten kampen met tekorten aan bepaalde cruciale soorten munitie die nodig zouden zijn bij een eventueel conflict met Rusland of China. De Amerikaanse voorraden zijn sterk geslonken door wapenleveringen aan Oekraïne sinds de Russische invasie en door het conflict van de VS met Iran.

JEDDAH (ANP) - Saudi-Arabië, Turkije en Pakistan ondertekenen vrijdag een gezamenlijk defensieakkoord. Dat melden bronnen rond het Saudische leger en de regering aan persbureau AFP. De drie landen versterken daarmee hun defensiesamenwerking tegen de achtergrond van de oorlog tussen de Verenigde Staten en Iran.

Het akkoord was volgens een van de bronnen al langere tijd in voorbereiding, maar de recente ontwikkelingen in de regio hebben het proces versneld.

De Saudische kroonprins Mohammed bin Salman ontmoet daarvoor in Jeddah de Turkse president Recep Tayyip Erdogan en de Pakistaanse premier Shehbaz Sharif. Sharif arriveerde donderdag in Saudi-Arabië. Erdogan wordt vrijdag verwacht.

Over een strategische alliantie tussen de drie landen wordt al maanden gespeculeerd. Pakistan probeert te bemiddelen om een einde te maken aan de oorlog tussen de VS en Iran. Turkije heeft een diplomatieke rol gespeeld bij onderhandelingen over beëindiging van de oorlog in Gaza.

SANTA FE (ANP) - Meta moet in de Amerikaanse staat New Mexico 567 miljoen dollar (ongeveer 492 miljoen euro) betalen en zijn platformen Facebook en Instagram veiliger maken voor jonge gebruikers. Het bedrag komt bovenop een eerder opgelegde schadevergoeding van 375 miljoen dollar.

Een rechter oordeelde donderdag dat het bedrijf verantwoordelijk is voor schade aan de mentale gezondheid van kinderen. De rechter stelde daarmee de openbaar aanklager van New Mexico in het gelijk. Die verweet Meta Instagram en Facebook zo te hebben ontworpen dat jongeren eraan verslaafd raken en kinderen onvoldoende te beschermen tegen seksuele uitbuiting.

Meta moet de 567 miljoen dollar in een speciaal fonds storten om de gevolgen aan te pakken. Ook moet het Amerikaanse bedrijf onder meer maandelijkse gebruikslimieten voor tieners invoeren en het aantal notificaties beperken. Verder moet Meta beter voorkomen dat volwassenen contact zoeken met minderjarigen en extra veiligheidsmaatregelen nemen voor AI-chatbots.

Meta gaat tegen de uitspraak in beroep.

Een jury oordeelde in maart al dat Meta de consumentenwet van New Mexico had overtreden door een misleidend beeld te geven van de veiligheid van Facebook en Instagram voor jongeren. Het bedrijf moest daarvoor 375 miljoen dollar schadevergoeding betalen.

TRUE 2 DEATH has added a photo to the pool:

Blue hour at the small fishing harbor in Iwasaki Village, Aomori. As the old fishing boats settle in for the night, a train on the Gono Line curves into a tunnel, leaving only a ribbon of light behind. For a few fleeting seconds, the quiet harbor and the railway become one scene.

uchi uchi has added a photo to the pool:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

uchi uchi has added a photo to the pool:

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Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Google's $15 billion data-center project in Visakhapatnam is facing protests and legal challenges over fears that it will worsen local water shortages and disturb wildlife near the Kambalakonda sanctuary. Google says the campus will use advanced air cooling and comply with Indian law, while state officials deny that residential or rural water supplies will be tapped. Reuters reports: The southern state of Andhra Pradesh, governed by an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has hailed the project as historic and transformational, has denied allegations that the project was fast-tracked without weighing risks to water supplies and wildlife. But the growing opposition could become an early test for Google's biggest-ever India investment, which is facing several legal challenges over its impact on water supplies and proximity to a wildlife sanctuary that is home to leopards and pangolins.

In recent weeks, activists and children have marched in Visakhapatnam city, holding banners saying "We cannot drink DATA" and painting handcuffs on the Google logo, social media posts show. On Sunday, Reuters attended a public gathering where activists chalked out plans for holding door-to-door awareness campaigns and beach protests in coming days. "Development should not be at the cost of livelihood of the people," Raja Rama Mohan Roy, founder of non-profit Green Visakha said at the event where he presented statistics on Visakhapatnam's stressed water supply and demand.

The government says the city receives 410 million liters of water a day from its reservoirs and rivers, against a requirement of 480 million. Rationing of water supplies is common in the city with a population of 2.5 million people. [...] The state's top court on Monday asked the government to defend against allegations leveled by activist group Jal Biradari (Water Community), which says the project will strain water availability by putting stress on a nearby reservoir. The Andhra Pradesh High Court will next hear the public interest litigation on August 24.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.